Dead fish float in the Pearl River in
August 2011. Temple Inland on Wednesday pled guilty in federal court in
New Orleans to violating the Clean Water Act for releasing paper liquor
into the river and causing the fish kill. Ramon Antonio Vargas, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune archive

The company pleaded guilty to a two-count bill of information charging
it with one misdemeanor count for negligent violation of the Clean Water
Act and one misdemeanor count for negligent violation of the Refuge
Act. Sentencing has been scheduled for May 1 before U.S. District Judge
Ivan Lemelle.

The company could also be placed on probation for a maximum of five years.

"This country's environmental laws are aimed at keeping inland waterways from becoming dumping grounds for waste materials," said Ivan Vikin, special agent in charge of the Environmental Protection Agency's criminal enforcement program in Louisiana. "The negligent discharge of a pollutant killed a large number of fish, including a protected species of sturgeon."

The case was investigated by the criminal investigative divisions of EPA and the state Department of Environmental Quality and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Dorothy Manning Taylor and Spiro Latsis.

The pollution incident began early on Aug. 9, 2011, according to the guilty plea filed with the court, when an "evaporator" at the plant became clogged, and "an extremely excessive quantity of liquor overflowed from a tank" and then from a containment area surrounding it. The material then flowed into a wastewater treatment plant and an effluent pond, and ultimately into the Pearl River.

The "black liquor" wastewater from the paper manufacturing process uses up oxygen when it is released into a freshwater stream like the Pearl River, causing fish and mussels to die. The wastewater reached the Pearl River on Aug. 10, and continued flowing into the river until at least Aug. 13, when the paper plant was shut down.

The Bogue Chitto National Wildlife Refuge, created in 1980, includes 36,000 acres along the Pearl River to the northeast of Slidell.

By Aug. 15, the black-colored paper liquor had reached the Bogue Chitto refuge, and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service officials found more than 1,000 fresh dead fish and 1,000
dead mussels in Government Ditch in the refuge.

"All fish observed
were intact and included recognizable species such as catfish, sturgeon
and fresh water drum," said a Justice Department news release
announcing the plea. "Mussels were seen intact with their shells
floating in the water. Many were floating in the center of the water and
others were grouped and caught by branches in the water."